Guest Starring: 
     
 Kristine Sutherland: 
 (Joyce Summers) 
   
 Armin Shimerman: 
 (Principal Snyder) 
   
 Nancy Lenehan: 
 (Pat) 
   
 Danny Strong: 
 (Jonathan) 
   
 
 
  2. Dead Man's Party.  
   
  Joyce brings an ancient African artefact into the Summers' house.  
   
  Great quotes:  
   
 
  • Once again BtVS comes down against religion: Buffy: "What about home-schooling, it's not just for scary religious people anymore."
  • Oz: "We should figure out what kind of a deal this is, is it a gathering, a shindig or a hootenanny?" And then explaining himself: "...chock full of hoot and just a little bit of nanny." Quality.
  • Giles: "Unbelievable. 'Do you like my mask? Isn't it pretty? It raises the dead!' Americans!"
 
  Fantastic moments:  
   
 
Everyone's happy to see Buffy.
  • Buffy screaming "Mum!" after Pat arrives at the house is quite funny, reminds me of some of my Mum's friends.
  • Xander: "You can't just bury stuff, it'll come right back up to get ya..." cut to some zombies... hooray!
  • The look on Giles' face at the moment when he has a quiet moment to himself after Buffy's return is just a perfect picture of happiness and relief.
  • Willow's 'moral superiority' is lovely, then the flurry of mock abuse that flies between her and Buffy: "Runaway, Quitter." "Whiner", "Bailer", "Harpy", "Delinquent", "Tramp", "Bad Seed", "Witch", "Freak"...
 
  Duff Bits:  
   
 
  • Do the Scoobies really believe that a great big party is the best thing for Buffy right now? Willow is usually good at these sorts of things.
  • The whole 'let's argue about our feelings scene after the party seems a little over-the-top and rather 'season 6' for my liking.
 
  Dean's comments:  
   
 
Evil...
It's nice to see the Scooby gang back together here, and dealing with Buffy's previous flight from Sunnydale in the way we might expect (her friends act like kids, her mum is over protective). Willow and Buffy are unable to communicate at the party (behold the metaphor!) although the pair of them opening up to each other is the most touching bit of the episode, much better than the subsequent all-in argument downstairs at the party. The whole supernatural phenomena for the episode seems like a bit of an add-on to give Buffy something physical to fight and therefore seems a bit hollow after the drama of her struggling with how to deal with Angel last season. Distinctly average.
 
   
 5/10 
 
Home, previous review, next review.